BUDAPEST, Hungary – Hungary’s parliament has approved amendments tightening the country’s asylum system, a response to the record number of migrants and refugees reaching the country over the past year. The plan, sharply criticized by the U.N.’s refugee agency, was approved Monday by lawmakers from the governing Fidesz party, its …
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Sri Lanka’s revival of a media regulatory group that empowers the government to imprison or fine journalists is raising concerns from press freedom groups. President Maithripala Sirisena made new appointments last week to the council he had dissolved following his shock election victory in January over …
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MEXICO CITY – Mexican journalist Pedro Ferriz says he was robbed at gunpoint while webcasting and he kept recording, taping part of his own robbery. Ferriz was speaking into a cellphone app in a car in Mexico City when he was robbed of his watch and phone by an assailant …
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BEIRUT – Activists say a tunnel explosion in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo has lightly damaged the wall of the city’s famous citadel. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sunday the tunnel was dug by rebels before it was discovered by troops who detonated it. The Observatory …
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MEXICO CITY – The Uber ride-sharing app praised Mexico City’s decision to become the first city in Latin America — and the largest in the world — to issue official regulations for such smartphone-based services. Uber’s spokesman for Mexico and Central America says the company doesn’t mind paying 1.5 percent …
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VANCOUVER, British Columbia – A former Canadian law enforcement officer who was in charge when police used an electroshock weapon on a Polish immigrant, causing his death has been given a two-year jail term for perjury during a public inquiry into the incident. Former corporal Benjamin Robinson was found guilty …
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LONDON – British authorities are investigating how a Sudanese migrant managed to walk nearly the entire length of the 31-mile (50-kilometer) Channel Tunnel from Calais before being stopped. Kent police say Abdul Rahman Haroun, 40, has been charged with causing an obstruction to an engine or carriage using the railway. …
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CAIRO – Egypt has rejected an offer by Qatar to mediate with the banned Muslim Brotherhood group, focus of a government crackdown since the ouster of Egypt’s Islamist president in 2013. Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ahmed Abu-Zeid said Sunday that Egypt does not accept any external interference in its internal affairs, …
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YAOUNDE, Cameroon – A Cameroon troop commander says forces killed 10 suspected Boko Haram fighters who had launched an attack on a town bordering Nigeria. Col. Jacob Kodji said Tuesday that hundreds of fighters entered the border town of Ashigashia in Cameroon early Tuesday, shooting into the air. He said …
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MOSCOW – Russia’s foreign minister is meeting with a delegation of the main Syrian opposition group, part of the Kremlin’s new push for a mediation role in the Syrian conflict. Sergey Lavrov held talks Thursday with the leadership of the Syrian National Coalition, which had previously refused to visit Russia. …
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